


Overheated Haze

by orphan_account



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Abandoned Fic, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 10:06:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8441494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Norway had absolutely no idea what was going on, and quite frankly - a lot of the rest of the world didn't at first either. Now all the countries are one and things are fucking up faster and faster and nothing seems to be going his way, surely he'll find the rest of his family, right? and he'll be with them again, right?Or will there be something.. Preventing such?[ i have left the hetalia fandom, this fic is abandoned ]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> tw existiental crisis + mention of guns/weaponry!

"There's nothin' I wouldn't do for ya, even if the sky were to fall." Sigurd had once said, a very, very, long time ago to his brother. To Emil. Now? At least a good million or so years later- More than a billion even. It had been at least two hundred fifty million years. Both the arctic and Caribbean seas had disappeared, Asia had crashed into the Americas - forming a supercontinent that stretched nearly all of the northern hemisphere, and Europe soon joined them. Pangea Ultima.  
‘Over the course’ of 250 million years was the estimate by scientists, though with the fact that humans were practically destroying the Earth as you may know it, well we can say it happened just a little quicker than it was supposed to. A little as in all at once. Gravity wasn’t entirely stable in some places, either. No, there isn’t any flying, but when it happens all at once, it’s not exactly easy to get used to. Looking at the big picture, Sigurd knew that he wasn’t even a speck of dust, floating around the side of a galaxy, around a star, with a few other planets. He was well aware that his life meant nothing in the big picture. Even looking at the sky in the middle of the night, remembering the stars he used to be able to see, how intimidating it seemed. Those stars weren’t even close to the solar system, and the fact that if he thought the sun was big, then looking at comparisons with the Earth to the sun to Supergiants, well, let’s just say that these factors didn’t make it hard for him to give up practically everything for his family.  
His friends.  
His everything.

Now, though. The only thing he was ‘giving up’ was everything. As I said, the world had changed almost overnight. Well, it took about three days, tops, and was only getting worse. After all the continents had become ‘one’, America and Russia had a border to share, for starters. Though, it really didn’t matter. Seeing as the already damaging pollution was destroying the ozone layer faster than ever. Just because the nations were immortal didn’t mean that they weren’t going to feel effects overtime, as they were connected to their land and their people - also it didn't mean they couldn't die, either. Another nation can kill another nation, and if their country is destroyed, they're practically human except a lot tougher. Now, the ozone layer was simultaneously the least of their problems and the worst of their problems. Water was becoming quite the task to get your hands on, seeing as with the lack of ozone was letting more ultraviolet rays in, which was evaporating it quicker, and the rainwater was most definitely not safe to drink until boiled, except boiling it evaporated it if you didn’t have a proper lid - It’s like a kid making excuses not to go to school. ‘Oh um i have a headache’ ‘take an advil’ ‘but that makes me sick’ ‘take a tylenol’ ‘but i dnt like the taste!!’, and spewing whatever bullshit out of their mouth off the top of their head.  
Food was just as scarce, too. Seeing as the fact that the lack of water went all the way down to a lack of crops to grow, and a lack of water also lead to a lack of grass. Lack of grass and crops was a lack of food to feed animals, meaning that even the animals they would eat were dying off pretty quickly. It’s a good thing that people had been getting used to eating plastic since the early two thousands, am I right? Right? Yeah- You should know exactly what cheesemaking company I’m shading.

Sleep was a little tricky for the first few days, especially with the continents moving over in such a small amount of time. Typical biological clock problems, but it’s not like he was going to get an inch of sleep until he knew Iceland was okay. With all the continents crashed, he hadn’t a clue where Iceland went- The island did crash into his own country, yes, but you see, where Iceland himself was? That was a mystery. Along with where Denmark was, Sweden was, and Finland was, even though they weren’t completely surrounded by ocean, it was like a domino effect, we can say that the mountain that Norway was supposed to give to Finland in twenty seventeen would've been in vain, seeing as with this domino effect, Finland gained more mountains than he probably wanted.  
Going back to the earlier note about not wanting to sleep until he found his family, I mean, waking up in the middle nowhere and not wanting to sleep since then. When it first started happening, the first thing that Sigurd could feel was unbalance. He could hardly stand on his own two feet. He brushed it off as nothing, until he’d tripped and woken up a few days later downstream of a stream- a stream that used to be a small river, that is - the area he was hunting at. He was fully aware of the idea that he’d have to first find his way home before he could even think about finding his brother, or really anyone.

Even getting up was a difficult task, having to first get himself out from under a hollow log which had landed on his legs, which meant he actually had to turn over onto his back, but the heat drained him of nearly all energy. There really wasn't much that he could do, and he hated it, he hated feeling so helpless- and so hot, for that matter. After a few quick calls for help, he'd realized he was alone. After about half an hour, he'd begun to panic when the water seemed to be draining itself somehow. Not extremely quickly, but as a visible speed. This gave him the motivation to try and get himself up- which after about fifteen minutes, he succeeded in shoving the log off and sitting up - to this he realized that he'd still had the hunting rifle on his back. With curiosity he pulled it off his back, to check how many bullets, of course. 8 out of 10. Well that's not ba- Wait a moment.  
Where the actual fuck did the rest of his bullets go?

Quickly snapping the magazine back into the rifle, he looked around- Well there was one of the cases, and another. Sigurd slowly pushed himself to his feet, wincing at the weight he put on one of his legs; a wild guess said it was probably fractured.  
Great, so now he was alone, with a gun, after presumably passing out for at least a day or so - who knows? His phone was deader than he was on the inside last time he saw it- Nevermind thoughts of the phone, it's gone now, there's no oh look it's x o'clock and this date of this year. No, he woke up in a forest and for all he knew he could have been asleep for days or could have been asleep for ten minutes. While he'd love the latter, he figured that based on his drastic change of surroundings, it wasn't just that simple. Of course not. It never was just as simple as a ten minute nap.  
Especially when you've woken up in the middle of nowhere and your ability to navigate your own country flawlessly was gone and one of your legs were injured.  
When it came to walking, he picked a random direction and headed that way, it wouldn't be long before he found a road, right? A week at most, if he's unlucky. If he found a road he could just follow it to a town and it'd all be fine.  
Everything would be back to normal and this would all be a dream.  
He just wanted to go home to his family, that's it.

He felt like he'd been walking for days, there was no sign of human life anywhere. You'd think that by now there'd be some easy way to get home, right? Just teleport or something. That's what people thought in twenty ten, one day we're gonna be able to teleport and have hover boards and blah blah blah. No, it didn't happen. There was no teleporting.  
No hover-boards.  
No involuntary tracking devices for all living beings.  
He was alone, and he'd have to find his own way home - if he could even make it home. His leg should've healed by now, but it hadn't. It was just a break, it was supposed to be able to be perfectly fine within an hour. He contemplated sitting around and waiting for it to heal instead of walking on it, but he figured that it wouldn't help and that he needed to get home quickly. He was starving, cold, unsheltered, unsafe, lonely..

He stopped to see if he could estimate the time, looking up at the sun he could see it growing dark - he knew he'd have to figure out something eventually, but so soon? One minute it feels like he'd been walking for hours, the next it feels like he'd gone through the entire day in a matter of seconds.  
Sighing, he looked around before making his way over to a small tree, using the branches to pull himself up, putting most of his weight onto his arms to avoid use of his legs, before settling himself into a spot where he was sure he wouldn't fall - surely his habits of clinging to beings in his bed would come of use now? Clinging to tree branches instead, keeping himself up high and safe for the night to sleep. It was uncomfortable, but there really was not a way to get comfortable in the middle of the forest without a tent. Was there? Nah.

He woke up on the ground, should he have expected different? No, not really. His gun was still up high, though, and he wasn't half eaten by wild animals. Great. He just laid there, contemplating on whether or not it was worth getting up - whether or not getting up would make a difference, for all he knew, he could be traveling upwards his country and never find a road, or he could be heading right towards one. It took a good fifteen minutes of just laying still before he managed to push himself to his feet, again wincing at the sharp pain in his knee whenever he put any weight on that leg. He reached for his gun, just barely managing to knock it down from the tree.  
Cold.  
Everything was cold for the first time in ages, global warming had kept him warm since, what, 3000? Around then, who knows. He felt cold.  
Even before global warming, before snow stopped entirely world wide, before salt water had to start be brought out to outer-fucking-space so that earth wouldn't flood, before all the glaciers had melted, before all this, he'd been strong against the cold. Now, though...  
He almost felt happy to feel the cold. He wanted to cry, he knew it probably meant something bad but he was so relieved that he could still feel any sort of cold, coolness, anything that wasn't warm. He loved it. It was the most amazing feeling he'd felt since he was young.  
He also felt a pang of guilt just then, it reminded him of his family. How they used to be the Northern Europe group for a reason, their strength against the cold, their bonds, everything they'd been through together.  
Now he wanted to cry more, for the completely opposite reason this time, though.. Fuck.  
He shook his head, best he not think of his family now, as he didn't want to start crying. Crying dehydrates you, and he doesn't really have clean water to drink right now.  
He sighed, dragging his feet in the same direction he'd been walking in last night, his only motivation to keep on going being thoughts of his family and friends.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies! I meant to update yesterday, but I ran out of time! Also sorry it's a bit short, I want to aim for 3-4k words per chapter, this ones only just barely over 2k ;;

Day one of collisions.

Matthias yelled. He'd been in bed, trying to sleep in more after waking up for the tenth time that morning, and suddenly CRASH, the roof caved in. He was okay, of course, it was mostly just the drywall that had come down. He swung his legs off the bed, he could feel the ground moving. He was on the second floor of the house and he could feel it, of course it wasn't unnatural for a nation to feel when there was an earthquake or something of the sort in their land, but this? This on the other hand was very unnatural, he'd never felt this; painful shifting, everything felt like it was shifting around inside him - yet at the same time there was nothing, just a throbbing pain in everything under his shoulders. He looked outside, he could see trees slowly unrooting themselves, the ground being pushed upwards.  
"I'm dreaming." He told himself, but pinching his arm proved otherwise. "Lucidly dreaming, this must be what Sig meant-" He yelped as a light piece of drywall fell into his head. The curtain rod had fallen too, allowing in enough light for Matthias to see he was covered in dust, head to toe in dust.   
Another loud crash and Matthias jumped to his feet, a few metres away from him sat the gun safe he'd kept in his attic for.. How long? Fuck if he knows. Long enough to forget about it.  
Now, while he'd love to sit here and think about all the memories even just seeing the safe had, there wasn't time for that. Slipping on his slippers - which were also full of dust from the drywall, he quickly made his way out of his room and down the stairs.  
Just dreaming, right?  
Then why was he panicking like there was no tomorrow, actually I take that back, as far as Denmark was concerned, there might not be a tomorrow.  
"Sigurd? Emil?" He called out as soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs, what time was it even? Too early. Suddenly there was a tight grip on his wrist, pulling him towards the door; to which he complied with no hesitation. "You look paler tha-"  
"Not the time, Matthias." Emil hissed, dragging them both outside. This has got to be a dream, for the love of fuck let it be a dream, this was worse than what he could see from his window. The roads were crushing themselves together as if the cement were nothing more solid than play dough, trees were falling over onto the road, the forever lasting heat that had damned him and the rest of the world for the last century - give or take a lot of years - was dying down, and a light breeze filled the air. It was... calming. Even in such times. The sound of shuffling brought Matthias back down to Earth as Emil brushed off his clothes from whatever dust he could.  
Suddenly his entire body went cold, and not from his surroundings this time around. "Wait-" Matthias began to panic, looking around himself frantically. "Where's Sig? He hasn't come out-" Emil paused for a minute, before sighing in slight relief. "He went on that hunting trip, didn't he?" Oh God.  
For fucks sake oh no this couldn't get any worse. They have to go on a hunt for someone who could very well not be alive, especially when he could hardly stand? Not even just because of the pain he felt, something was.. Off.  
"We need to find him." Matthias replied, shoving all thoughts of Oh Please Let This Be A Dream aside and storming off in the direction of the forest. "Are you crazy? At least lets run in and try to pack something!" Emil exclaimed, grabbing at Matthias and successfully managing to stop him in his tracks.  
"Can we even do that? Look at the house-"  
"If we're quick, maybe."  
What was there to lose? Matthias sighed, though none of the tension that would have normally been released from his shoulders left him. Rather, he reluctantly and hesitantly headed into the crumbling mess that was their house.  
Emil grabbed a backpack off the coat hanger, an empty one that had just been sitting there for years with no use, flattened against the wall. He then proceeded to run off into the basement before Matthias could say anything, and instead he just followed him - to be sure he was safe, Sigurd would've done it.  
Matthias cringed at the thought of Sigurd again, for all he knew his friend could be dead or fatally wounded and in pain forever. Emil was done in his room shortly, the bag having been stuffed with something - Fuck knows what though, and Matthias wasn't really curious about it to be brutally honest, his mind was only full of thoughts of his best friend being in pain and needing help. Emil had to tug him towards the stairs for a moment to get him to stop spacing out.  
"Where's-"  
"They're out at the cabin. Probably very far from this disaster." Emil cut him off, rushing up the stairs with Matthias on his heels, a step or two breaking at his step.  
Matthias stopped once he reached the top, unable to comprehend how fast this was going - Emil knew what he was doing, he had ran off to the kitchen without waiting a moment for Matthias.  
He grabbed a set of keys and shoved them in his pocket, as well as the wallet that say next to it. Among the keys was a house key and the shed key. They probably wouldn't ever need them again but it's not like Matthias picked them up with that in mind.  
Emil emerged from the kitchen, glancing at the stairs going upwards before shaking his head and running out the door, Matthias followed him shortly after, and grabbed his shoes on the way out.  
"Where 'bouts did he go?" Matthias asked, gaining no answer from the younger as they walked on.  
Now, Matthias wished he had a car. Though the road wasn't entirely safe in some parts to drive over, it'd still beat walking forever. Nations couldn't get cars, though. It was stupid as hell. 'How old are you' '330000' 'no really :/' 'I swear' et cetra. They didn't have birth certificates, and even if they did at one point they'd be long gone by now, and it was doubted they'd take a Declaration of Independence seriously as a birth certificate.

They walked for what felt like hours with no direction in mind, but Matthias was certain he knew how to get to the beach where sometimes he could see Norway's shore from if there wasn't any mist or fog - he had the route memorized by heart, with how often he walked there. It was just taking longer than usual, wasn't it?  
He suddenly came to a halt as he looked down, water. He looked back up across from it.  
He could see Norway very clearly, the shore of course, his friend was still long gone and lost.  
"Th' hell? There's hardly any lake left-" He panicked, trying to go back to convincing himself this was a dream. There's no way, none. It was getting closer, the two masses of land were getting closer, and the water rose for a moment to his ankles, before leaving again.  
He took a few rapid steps backward, followed by Emil repeating such. This must be why he felt like everything was moving. Because it was.  
Everything was changing right before his eyes and he couldn't do anything to stop it, not for himself, not for Emil, not for he world. He was powerless.  
He hadn't felt like this in so long, he hadn't felt so useless, so horrible; like such a disappointment. He knew that it wasn't his fault, but could he really help it? After all these years saying that 'I'll always be there for you' 'I'll do anything in the world to keep you all safe' even declaring himself the King of Scandinavia, or at least a joke between his family. It was shameful. What kind of King should feel like such a let down? Even if Emil wasn't paying that any mind, it didn't stop him from feeling horrible about it. Not to mention, he was panicking about everything; especially about the whole land mass moving at a visible speed, he could see Norway - the land mass, not his friend - clearer than day. He could see it growing closer by the second. Within minutes it was at his own border. "When I get to one, we run across." Matthias stated, staring back at the landmass that continues to grow closer. Could he run in slippers? Find out soon.  
"Thre-" "One!"  
Emil bolted, followed swiftly by Matthias without question. Perhaps three seconds was an overestimate. The water was hardly ankle high, and slipping off his slippers was waste of valuable time but probably the only way to cross, heavy water soaked slippers were not easy to run in, so he kicked them off, bye bye beloved expensive soft slippers. They both were on the other side and still running within seconds, they didn't stop running for a good ten minutes.  
They'd made some good distance, the cuts in Matthias's feet did too. The newly formed hills behind them? They were making distance as well, already tall enough to see over trees. While they had a moment, Matthias slipped on the shoes he'd grabbed earlier. They didn't need to run anymore with the distance they'd already put between themselves and the forming mountain, but walking was still a requirement as there was a potential of it following them, but as far as Denmark could tell it had stopped, thankfully.

The more they traveled inland, the less of a crisis there seemed to be, less land coming up at them randomly, just in general.. Easier. When Emil had been woken up he'd panicked, but at least he wasn't completely out of it like Matthias seemed to be, it was always hard to tell what Matthias was thinking. Despite showing such bare emotions all the time, and speaking almost anything that came to mind - well, not really. Matthias was tricky, you never knew whether or not he was genuinely happy or pretending to be happy for your sake, making it hard not to be appreciative of him when he did anything for you. You also never knew if he took an insult seriously or not, so again, the family would only ironically insult him. Then again, they didn't seriously insult each other at all in the first place, so.. Anyway, the previous night, Emil had fallen asleep in what he'd worn out with some friends; so as far as he was concerned he was pretty set attire wise with a tee-shirt and jeans, along with sneakers he'd gotten from America, seeing as the whole global warming shit. He'd only recently been aware of the breeze, and at night was the only real time it got cold; but he did have a blanket packed, plus it was only around four in the afternoon by now, they had a couple hours to go. Worst comes to worst he'll have to cuddle Denmark for warmth under a blanket, which honestly didn't sound like a horrid idea; maybe Denmark wouldn't have been his first choice, but platonically cuddling with anyone for warmth at night seemed so.. Old. Reminded him of when he was younger, around seventeen. He was technically twenty now, but three years of aging country wise is quite a long ass time, and even going outside past eleven was so rare for anyone these days. While the ozone layer may protect people from the sun, it also keeps warmth in, doesn't it? That might be the reason it's so cold at night with such a thin ozone layer, but Emil was never a scientist, what would he know? Not much.  
"Let's rest for a bit." Matthias suggested, and as soon as he stopped walking he nearly collapsed, had it not been for the tree next to him he would've fallen to his knees. Goddamn this feeling, it wasn't pleasant. He could tell Denmark was in more pain just from the way he walked, and thankfully Emil wasn't subject to too much change aside from his placing and a new border, fuck knows where though, probably the Faroe Islands or Norway, or both. Either way, he wasn't being squashed and he was mainly feeling the familiar joint aches of new mountains or volcano eruptions. Poor Matthias, he didn't deserve this. Emil simply nodded towards Matthias, in full understanding that he needs the break to rest.  
When Matthias took a seat on the ground, Emil was quick to take a seat next to him. "I have food and a couple water bottles in the bag, but we should save it for a bit." He was about to lean on Matthias, but caught himself. Saving himself the general embarrassment and the embarrassment of potentially hurting Matthias more than he already was with the whole mountain thing. "Brought th' can opener and knives too." He added, proud of his last minute thoughts when grabbing random things from the cupboard. Canned foods lasted longer, and a can opener was always good. As well as knives are also always good, since they didn't have time to grab real weapons. "Yer right, we should save 'em just in case. Doesn't look like we're going home anytime soon- do you have your phone?" Matthias responded, reaching over to gently ruffle Emil's hair. Emil huffed and pushed his hand and arm away, "No, it was charging when we left. You?" Matthias shook his head. "Ditto. I should've grabbed mine, could'a called Sig n' asked him to meet us somewhere. Y'know?" Emil nodded, leaning against the tree behind him for something to put his weight on, his own back getting kinda sore. "Yeah, I guess. He's probably in town somewhere, though.." Emil paused, thinking for a moment - lucky to go uninterrupted. "Y'don't think he's stupid enough to go hunting alone, right?" Emil asked, his voice lowering a bit. Of course his brother was that stupid, but it was worth asking anyway. Despite knowing the answer, Matthias telling him "Nah." Was pretty comforting in the idea that his brother might not be extremely injured somewhere, and was either in town or with someone out in the woods. Not dead yet, right? Nah, a nation couldn't die that quickly. It'd take at least a week if they were already weak beforehand... Right?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter is 100% sure this R guy is some Russian city, making him hesitant to trust the help given, but what other choice does he have?

Day two of collisions.

The lights were off, the only light in the living room being the TV on, the news. Peter and Erland watched attentively, the news was currently talking about Asia, but that's not why the two were watching - they were waiting for information on their family. Erland was originally going to go with Peter and stay with their parents, but the two had gotten into an argument over who could put up with England for a longer time a week or so prior to the decision that they'd be going to Arthur's instead of tagging along for camping. It had worked out for everyone at the time, Timo and Berwald get to spend time alone, while Peter and Erland get complete against each other for whoever could go the longest without getting upset with Arthur. Now, though. Timo and Berwald had no means of communication from where they were, while Peter and Erland were worried sick about them - What if they didn't even know about the collisions? So far, the two kids hadn't had much problem here, seeing as they were pretty far inland. Though it was a little shakey when England had originally crashed into the mainland. It was like all the continents were like clay boats, floating around peacefully until crash! A child comes and mushes them together like nothing, creating a larger boat, but in the process creating distress, pain and death for the passengers and sailors.  
"Alright kids, bed time" Arthur had told them, sternly at that. "Nooo! Let us keep watching!" Peter protested, followed by his brother, Erland, crossing his arms.  
The TV was going on about how Denmark and Norway had recently collided, and how England was no longer surrounded by water - for the most part. Peter was worried for his uncle, and for his own land for that matter, but somehow Sealand seemed to be holding up, seeing as Peter didn't feel much pain. Erland on the other hand... Poor thing's been leaning on Peter all day. Normally he wouldn't even bother to touch his brother, but he could barely bring himself to stand.  
Arthur's tone softened, and he kneeled down beside Peter and Erland, gently moving to pick up the ginger. "I know you're both worried, but Matthias is probably fine. Your parents will kill me if they find out you two weren't in bed-" Erland gave minimal protest, as he was unable. "We won't tell! Promise!" Peter piped up hopefully, hopefully he would int have to resort to outright begging. Arthur had to be worried too, right? Alfred and Matthieu had been brought up on TV earlier, and Arthur hadn't missed a second of it, Peter knew he couldn't take this away from them.  
Arthur seemed to hesitate for a bit, before nodding and sitting down in front of the TV, Ladonia still in his arms. "Alright, but as soon as they stop talking about your chaps, you two are off to bed." Arthur gently shifted around so Erland could see the TV.  
The reporter seemed to have minimal emotion about it, almost reminding Peter of uncle Sigurd. Erland was too busy paying attention to the images behind the man to try to compare him to anyone they knew. The only way he seemed like Norway anyway was the emotion part, his hair was slicked back and was a very dark shade of brown, nearly black.  
"And now, Sweden. Sweden has col-" The power cut.  
Peter shrieked, jumping to his feet. "No! No, no, no!" Peter started panicking, trying to turn the TV back on, pressing the power button like a mad man. "He was about to talk about papa!" Erland made a small noise of distress, he was a part of Sweden - so if Erland could hardly move on his own... He couldn't imagine Berwald as anything other than a strong nation, that's it. Papa is going to be fine.  
Arthur sighed, gently setting Erland down and standing up. "I'll go downstairs and turn the power back on." He started walking off, and Peter moved over until he could feel the heat of Erland's body. He wasn't outright afraid of the dark, no, but it made him.. Uneasy, uneasy to think about Erland being alone while in pain. Despite their constant disagreements, they were still brothers, and Peter did care about him. At least enough to sit next to him in the dark.

Arthur had been in the basement for about fifteen minutes before the ground started to shake, not much, but just enough for Peter and Erland to both feel the effects, and for them both to panic. "Arthur?!" Peter called out to his older 'brother', and Erland cringed a little at the loud voice next to him. There was a quiet onslaught of cursing to be heard from where he was, and footsteps on the stairs, followed by a louder "Coming!" From Arthur, shortly after followed by Leon asking if Arthur was going to restore the power, and Arthur just replied that he should "Come upstairs, now!" In a fairly panicked tone, this was much worse than a little shake, wasn't it?  
Next, there was a loud cracking noise, another one, one more. The same wall that the doorway to the basement was on collapsed, and Erland screamed.  
This was bad.  
This was bad.  
This is really bad.  
How absolutely horrid this was to see was the only thing running through Peters mind, he called out to Arthur again. No reply.  
Peter stood up, the shaking made it hard to balance - as if it wasn't already difficult anyway, not to mention the feeling of adrenaline making every one of his limbs vibrate almost at the same frequency as the ground was. He made his way towards the wall slowly, and called out Arthur's name again. He called Leon's name, in the same tone. A muffled reply was there, but there was no way down the stairs - well, I shouldn't even call them stairs. There were no stairs anymore, they had to get out of the house. There wasn't any waiting for Arthur and Leon to get out of the basement.  
Peter rushed over to Erland, who seemed to have the same sense of urgency, as he was already making an effort to push himself to his feet. If Peter didn't know any better, he'd have waited, but he grabbed ahold of his brothers arm, helping pull him to his feet and out the door.  
Looking down the street, he could see it, a domino effect of houses falling over one another. Now, normally Peter would have a sense of pride - he'd want to be able to help on his own, but in this scenario? There wasn't anyone to impress, it was a matter of life and.. Well, life, but laying around in pain until your country is destroyed and your people are all dead. While Sealand may be completely submerged, it was still standing. His only problems were the slight difficulty when it came to breathing, he had to do so out of his mouth - Off topic. Any sense of pride and dignity about not asking for help was pointless to have, a burden even, Peter screamed for help, for someone.  
The streets were alive, but nobody had the time to spare. Peter tried to lead his brother in the general direction of the flow of people, he didn't exactly fail at doing so, but it wasn't completely a success either. These were humans, the condition of their nations land didn't cause them any physical harm. The streets were bare within half an hour, with Peter and Erland falling behind faster than imagined. Suddenly the half-weight of Erland's leaning on him for help walking was removed completely, along well as his own weight on the ground as someone lifted them both from the ground. "Where's Britian?" Now, if Peter wasn't in a state of panic, he would've given the stranger a smartass reply of 'you're standing on it', but he just shook his head. He didn't ask any more questions before running off with the two, faster than Peter could've imagined them to get anywhere. It didn't take them too long to get to where a large amount of the population had gone - further inland. It was late, and dark. Peter was tired, and from the looks of it, Erland was too. He was fast asleep, the stranger still holding him. Thankfully the man seemed to know what he was doing, no sudden movements once he was sat down on the edge of a fountain, Peter was let down while the man still held Erland.  
He'd seen this guy somewhere before, but he couldn't put a finger on it. He certainly wasn't a human, that's for sure. No human could get them from one place to another that quickly - but if he was a nation, why wasn't he in pain? Or at least seem like it?  
"Who are you?" Peter asked, he hadn't meant to ask - but it just slipped from him. The man looked up and smiled, an odd smile to Peter - but again, Peter couldn't put a finger on what about it was odd. "A friend." He simply stated, his accent sounded French, but not quite French, and he very obviously was not Francis. Francis kept his hair kept, not to mention it was blond, not a strawberry blond, was that the colour? It was dark and hard to see, but it wasn't blond, that much he could tell. He chuckled, seemingly at the face of frustration Peter had made while trying to figure this out. "Trust me, Arthur and I are.. Close." He stuck his tongue out, a jokester, hm? He seemed like it.  
Peter wasn't sure how trustworthy the guy was, but he wasn't about to deny potential help. He sat next to him, but not too close. While he didn't want to trust the guy, again, he didn't have much choice if he wanted any help. "What can I call you?" He asked, avoiding the 'what is your name' question, from what he'd already figured out - it would've been useless to ask such of him.  
"Just call me 'R', for now. Where's Arthur?" He asked, the accent was nice, he couldn't help but take note of how it was a good accent he'd like to hear more often - it almost sounded Italian, even. A mix between Italian and French, maybe? Peter hesitated, before sighing and explaining how the power had gone out, and how Arthur wasn't able to return from the basement.  
'R' looked down at the ground, towards his knees almost. "A goner, then." He almost mumbled, his expression dropping from a cheesy smile to one of solemn. "Was there anyone with him?" He asked, and Peter nodded. "We wouldn't have been able to get Leon out on our own." He whispered, tearing up. R shifted, using his now free hand to rub Peter's back. "I'm not gonna say they'll be fine, but once they're gone - anythings better than living through what's to come." Peter nodded, pulling his knees to his chest.  
"We don't have much time, but we have some now." He went on, still rubbing Peter's back in an assumed effort to comfort him. "Tell me, where's your family? The northern ones." He asked, smiling a bit. "Papa n' dad are out in the cabin, it's near the Russian border in Finland. Uncle Sig went out hunting right before we left to England. Matthias n' Emil should still be a-" He cut himself off, standing up. "Matthias's house is right next to the shore- please sir, we have to find them." Peter grabbed onto R's hand, desperately trying to pull him up. He didn't budge, he simply closed his eyes. "They are fine, worry less. They have each other, da?" Was that Russian? Da? No, this man wasn't Russia. He knew Ivan well, and Ivan was much, much taller. This was getting to him more than it should, he didn't have time for this. "Please sir-" R shook his head, "Nu. Should worry about Nor, Sealand. He's in the most danger right now. Hm?" Goddamn him! How was it fair that R knew who Peter was, but not vice versa? Thinking about it, though, Uncle Sigurd would've been exposed near the shore when this started - so R wasn't entirely wrong. "Then we have to find him, too-" Again, R shook his head. "We have to wait." Damn his forever vague answers.  
He wanted to ask why they had to wait, exactly, but.. Did he? Did he really? He hesitantly nodded, "What do we do now, then?" He asked, and R closed his eyes.  
"I suppose we could search for Sig, but it'd be dangerous for childr-"  
"We can handle it!"  
R gently sat Erland down on the edge of the fountain where Peter could still support him.  
"What are you doing?"  
"Stay here."  
R ran off, and Peter tried to watch where he was going - but before long it had gotten too dark to do that, and he just continued to stare in that general direction, waiting for him to come back.

Within fifteen minutes, a car came driving by - stopping in front of them, looking up at the window, Peter could see R in the front seat and getting out. "Alright kids! We gotta move quickly because I'm dead the moment he finds out his wallet and keys are gone. Get in." Peter didn't bother asking who, probably because R didn't know who, and gladly accepted the help getting Erland into the back seat and buckled in safely before getting in himself.

Speed limits were not a thing anymore, as there wasn't even any people or other cars to bother looking out for as they sped North. "What if we run out of gas?"  
"I'll just steal a different car that's close-by, see if I can get it to start." Peter noted about how happy R seemed to be doing this, or something. He just seemed.. Happy? He was like Denmark, a smile on his face in nearly all situations, well so far at least- he was probably an optimist too.  
"How do you know where you're going?"  
"These things have a compass, I think." While it was true, half the lights on the inside of the car weren't working - meaning he had an inner compass, right? Peter had come to that conclusion, so this man was a nation for sure.  
Hours passed of driving, Peter had fallen asleep multiple times during the ride. Who knew it'd take this long? Perhaps it was the caution being taken - despite there being not much to crash into, the ground probably wasn't too safe to drive on. Peter pushed that thought away, this was perfectly safe. Cars were great and safe.  
Peter had just been waking up again as R pulled to the side of the road. "Welcome to Norway, here from Britain in just under 15 hours by car and speeding. Now, I'm tired as fuck. You stay up and wake me up if anything dangerous happens, da?" Peter nodded, again taking note of the Russian tongue. Perhaps he's a city? Hong Kong was a city. It would make sense with the compass, along with the lesser amount of injuries this guy seemed to have.

Peter looked through his pockets for a snack, or something to do, either would be great. It was quite light out, probably around one or two in the afternoon. Who knows when they left? They were parked in the middle of a forest, and Peter couldn't say he felt entirely unsafe. He felt like talking, but looking into the back he could see that Erland probably wasn't up to talking.

BANG.

A gunshot, R was awake within moments, fumbling around to start the vehicle. There was another bang, but not a gunshot. His window - he was scared to look.  
"Oh, thank God!" R exclaimed, unlocking the car with a button.

"This is some sort of miracle. Now help me out Ro." Peter frowned, he knew that voice! He looked over, and almost instantly regretted that decision. While his uncle wasn't injured a ton, he still had more than his fair share of scratches and scrapes and was covered in dirt and branches. More surprisingly though, his uncle knew this guy? Russian city guy?

"Get in the car, n' wake me up when I have to stop having a nap. Careful of the kid."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> W h o ' s
> 
> a t 
> 
> t h e 
> 
> d o o r ? 
> 
> : - )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so maybe that took longer than it should have but I'm failing a couple subjects sorry oops
> 
> tw murder + "murder" x2

The final day of collisions. Day three.

They both lay in silence, Timo's head on Berwald's chest, and Berwald's arm around his husband. Neither of them felt pleasant, not a word had to be spoken to know that they were both excessively worrying for their children, but they currently had no way to get back - as they had to take a taxi to get out here, because the 'You're Not Five Hundred uwu' and 'Show Me Your Birth Certificate uwu' whenever they tried to get a goddamn drivers license. Besides, surely it was simply an earthquake, right? The kids would be fine with Arthur, completely fine.. He was a responsible man who knew what he was doing with kids. Entirely.  
He'd fallen asleep multiple times, but couldn't get himself to stay asleep for more than a short amount of time. A shame, because he was a great deal more than simply exhausted.  
Timo knew he'd gotten more mountains then he'd would have liked, he could see them when he closed his eyes. Hey, look on the bright side! When all this is over he'll be able to go skiing in his own country. Right?  
Tino felt his husband flinch when there was a loud bang on the door. "Sh, it's just the wind." He mumbled, looking up at him. The comforting words of the Finn seemed to be of no avail to calm him though, as he shifted so he could get up. Timo had no idea what kind of pain Berwald was in, but from the way he walked to the bedroom door - with his back hunched over and painfully obvious that he was trying to hide the slight limp, "I'll be right back." He promised as he shut the door behind himself, clicking it shut. Timo could've sworn he heard it lock, but it was no matter.  
Timo laid back down, but only for about five minutes before the sound of "Prickskytt småkakor!" The deep voice echoes through the entire cabin, panic and strain lacing every syllable. Sniper cookies? What could th- Safe word.  
Hide.  
Timo slid out of bed, glancing around before pulling open the nightstand cupboard, kicking everything out of it and putting himself in its place. Not an ideal hiding place, but better than nothing. Berwald knew he could take care of himself, so the fact he had to use the safe word for the first time ever- it was serious. Everything was quiet for a long while, and he was just about to push out of his little hiding spot before hearing another loud bang, this time a lot closer.  
Couldn't he take care of himself?  
He hesitated a little bit before pushing open the little door, another loud bang - on the bedroom door. Shit, "Quickly." He whispered to himself, shoving the pain of his joints and every other part of his body to the back of his mind and reaching under the bed, best to take precautions, hm? He pulled out his rifle, making as little noise as possible until loading it, which he saw as the best course of action, best if the attacker knew he was armed, yes?  
Another loud bang, and Timo flinched, standing up and positioning himself off to the side of the door, safety off and ready to shoot.  
"Sunflower, I've run out of supplies at home. You don't mind that I borrow some of yours, da?" That sweet and innocent - Timo hissed, not hesitating before the yell of "Avaa ovi!" Escaped his throat, "Jos uskallat!" His voice was harsh, but the aggressive tone of voice masked any sign of pain he might be in without much trouble. There was a light hum from the other side of the door before it was kicked. Once, it didn't budge. Twice, it shook. Three times, the door fell, and Timo didn't think twice before holding down the trigger like his life depended on it and didn't let go until he was completely out of ammo, in less than a matter of seconds, the Russian man dropped to the floor, and slowly the area around him started to stain with red, "Oh God-" He whispered, taking a few steps back, realizing what he'd done. "Forgive me." He dropped the gun, covering his mouth. He was safe, though. Right?  
He shook his head, breathing out. This was for the best, self defence. He picked up the gun, carefully making his way around the body and down the stairs. "Berwald?" He called out, taking care in every slow step he took on each step. No response.  
He called again, and again when there was no response he began to rush towards the main room. Stopping dead in his tracks and shrieking at the next thing he saw.  
"Sweden!" He screamed, yet again dropping his weapon and rushing over to his husband, kneeling beside him. He looked virtually unharmed aside from the large wound on his head, and he was out cold. His fingers pressed to Berwald's neck, feeling for something he knew wouldn't come - at least not with the strength he was used to. He should've protested when Berwald went to leave the room, he should've ran downstairs the moment he heard the word, he shouldn't have listened and hid. "This is all my fault.." He whispered, his throat burning and he pulled the dying other onto his lap. He had so many thoughts going through his head - reasons why this was entirely his fault, reasons of why he should've come with him downstairs, but that was the only thing he could say, well say aloud - because damn his thoughts were a lot more active than that simple phrase. Not a single thought of confusion regarding why Berwald wouldn't have healed by now crossed his mind, nor the thought of the man who lie dead upstairs stop by either.  
He held his lover close, a hand making its way to Berwald's chest. His heartbeat was still there, but weak. He wasn't breathing, or at least it was too shallow for even Timo to pick up on.  
"I'm sorry." He mumbled, removing his hand from Berwald's chest in order to close his eyes, then proceeding to wipe his own; not wanting to start crying.  
Berwald must be in so much pain, slowly dying like that - Timo could practically hear him asking to be put out. It was obvious that he wasn't going to survive, and what was more morally correct? Watching your lover slowly and painfully die? Or making it---

Timo hesitated, and with a deep breath shifted so that his hands could cup Berwald's jaw, he could hardly see him anymore - everything was blurred from the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes. "Förlåt. Jag älskar dig." He whispered, trying to keep his voice clear and his tone steady - hoping that he might die a little happier if it was in Swedish that he last heard. Timo hesitated, waiting for some form of protest, but there was nothing. He sighed, quickly jerking his arms in such a way to snap Berwald's neck, using every ounce of strength he had to make sure he wasn't just leaving him alive and in more pain.

\---Quick?


	5. Chapter 5

Day one after collisions.

They'd been wandering and unadmittedly lost in the forest for.. How long now? About two, maybe three, days, occasionally the ground would shake and they'd stop to reduce the strain themselves, or they'd just stop to rest or eat; either or. The two would never eat too much, though, after all; who knew when they'd get a chance to get more food? Neither of them were really huge hunters anymore, too many years gone dormant of the skill, but on the bright side- Denmark had taught Iceland that rubbing two sticks together wasn't going to start a fire if he wasn't pressing hard enough, and that stones would be a better bet than sticks, in return, Iceland managed to convince the elder that butterflies aren't something to be scared of - at all. You wouldn't believe how much he freaked out at small wildlife, it was hilarious.  
Now, though, they were walking, they'd been walking in whichever direction that they were, for about an hour or two - having woken up at the crack of dawn due to Emil's habits, before Emil could feel a light pull in his back, originally he'd tried to brush it off, but it was as if being on his brothers land and trying to find his brother had the earth trying to tell him something along the lines of 'hey asshole, you're going the wrong way.' He ignored it for a solid ten minutes before stopping Matthias. "We should go that way." He pointed behind himself and Matthias paused, a frustrated expression on his face for a mere second before nodding and fully turning around to walk back in the direction that Emil had pointed out, the pull in his back moving to his chest as they walked that way - it had to be something important, the Earth was telling him to go that way. Eventually the pull died down, they were going the right way.  
Suddenly, Matthias let out a gasp, quickly grabbing onto Emil and moving behind a tree. "What the Hell–" "There's something big, shh." Matthias was freaking out, a lot more than Emil thought he should be. He pulled away from the Dane, looking back in the direction to see the behind of a moose just leaving into the bush. He could see why Matthias was panicking, but if you think he'd admit that he would've been just as scared had he noticed quicker then you're entirely wrong. "It didn't even notice us, let's keep going." He muttered, walking ahead of Denmark.  
Eventually, as luck may have it - the two come across a road, but hours later - looking up, Emil could only guess it was around mid day, a little bit before, by the time they stumbled across it. "Thank Óðinn." Emil muttered, brushing off his shirt of debris and preparing himself in case he gets a chance to hitchhike. Matthias seemed to have other plans as he wandered up the road, Emil couldn't - well, also didn't want to, but that's beside the point - do anything but sigh, there was no point in trying to stop him, as there was no indicator to tell him where to go anymore; had he misinterpreted it? Maybe it was just leading him to a road, not his brother - but why did he have a natural compass on his brothers land? It was odd to him, but he tried not to pay it any more thought, he was already hurting as it was, he didn't need a headache to add atop of what was already there.   
More, they walked, and again it must've been pure luck that Emil could see a car in the distance, and that's probably the only thing that kept the two going instead of taking a break -- Wait a second.  
Emil halted, followed by Matthias.

Matthias looked to see what Emil was looking at - was that Sigurd? It looked like him from a distance. He was leaning against the car, and someone opened a door, getting out. Who was he with? Whoever it was, Matthias didn't have the heart to just sit and watch as the two got really close, hugging and the like. He waved, yelling to make his presence known as his sore knees carried him as fast as they could over, and Emil quickly followed. "Nor!" Matthias exclaimed, stopping a couple metres from him - out of breath. "Oh, Dane." Sigurd responded, crossing his arms. Now, Matthias could see how small the stranger was compared to him and Sigurd; With the two both being about six feet, this other guy seemed so tiny. With guessing he had to be about five seven or five eight, hell if Matthias knew; but it was funny and a reason to smile, of course a reason to smile in desperate times was always good. Emil could see how disappointed Sigurd seemed to be that Matthias was there, but at the same time he looked fairly happy to see him again, mixed as heck with a hint of nothing. On the other hand he'd gotten a glare from Sigurd's friend; who'd been hugging his brother only a few minutes before. "Sigurd." Emil stated, walking over and giving his older brother a hug, and getting one about twice as tight and secure in return; comforting, honestly. He didn't want to pull away, he wanted to cry about everything that was happening and about the shape of his body but as luck may have it, they were around people, and even staying like this too long would get awkward and embarrassing, and for some reason he still cared about that, so he pulled out of the hug. The other semi-familiar face without a name pulled him into a hug too, and Emil didn't think twice about hugging him back; only for a second before he realized what he was doing and fairly quickly pushed away, both he and Sigurd seemed to find this funny. Matthias walked over to get a hug from Sigurd too, and the face the other made was indescribable - but funny. It lasted a while before there was a harsh bang on the window and Peter pressed himself up against the glass, pulling away to say "Once you lovebirds are all done--!" Sigurd decided it was time to stop, seemingly at the very moment, and lightly pushed Matthias off.  
Peter climbed out of the car, stumbling a little. "I am here! I am awake!"  
"You weren't supposed to be asleep--"  
"Uncle Sig was keeping watch, nap king napkin." All four of them laughed at this to their own extents, Matthias's signature and full laugh, Sigurd's light chuckles, Emil's little breath of amusement, and the other guy was somewhere between Sigurd's and Matthias's - again, indescribable. Peter just seemed happy that everyone liked his joke.   
They chatted for a long while, about Sigurd's hunting trip, about Matthias and Emil's trip and how Emil had this feeling of which way to go, about how his brothers friend had saved Peter and Erland, everything was good - they were just missing Timo and Berwald, then this would be complete. How much Emil missed the rest of his family - but it wouldn't be horrible to try and find the last two - would it? After all, they'd managed to gather these five together, what's two more?  
Thinking positive felt better than facing the reality that Timo and Berwald were both very far away, and that they probably wouldn't find him for weeks, months even.  
"Hey, weren't you supposed t'be with Arthur?" Sigurd asked, glancing at the only child happening to be awake at the time. Peter fell silent, along with The Unnamed One. Matthias and Emil exchanged glances, and both decided that this wasn't a good time to speak - with Peter falling so solemn so quickly.. Ouch.  
"Sigurd." He replied, his voice low, almost as if he was trying to be comforting - wait a second.. Oh god. Emil's heart dropped to his stomach, and by his brothers expression he could only guess that Sigurd was feeling the same, only multiplied by a tenfold. Absentmindedly, a hand covered his mouth as he urged himself not to go over to give his brother another hug.  
"I'm sorry- it's my fault.." Peter added, obviously pretty upset by this too as he wrapped his small arms around Sigurd, the other friend did the same. Emil put an arm in front of Matthias as he stepped forward, glaring at him and hoping he'd get the message that this is their deal and Matthias didn't need to interrupt. "Vladimir, please tell me he's not dead." Sigurd's voice was so quiet, so strained, and looking back, Emil could see his brother on the verge of tears, clearly Vlad did too - as he moved an hand up to gently wipe his eyes with his sleeve. "I'm sorry."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it has been revealed to you if you haven't guessed,,, "R" is Romania / Vladimir.


End file.
